The present invention relates to mowers and particularly to rotary mowers including means for protecting the cutting blades and means for more efficiently and effectively cutting grass and the like by providing an updraft which draws the grass into the path of the blades.
One of the common types of mowers for cutting grass and agricultural crops is the drum or disc mower wherein a plurality of blades are carried in an orbit around a substantially vertical central axis. A serious problem with such mowers is the possibility of damage to the blades which occurs when the blades strike stones or other solid objects.
Another problem encountered by rotary mowers occurs when the grass under the influence of the horizontal air flow generated by the counter rotating mower rotors tends to duck away from the cutting blades and to erect itself behind the mowers, thus leaving an undesirable uncut strip in the center between each pair of the correlated rotors. This problem is extremely troublesome in thin hay.
Various solutions to these problems are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,656,286 and 3,662,529 to Glunk et al., in U.S. Pat. No. 3,507,104 to Kline, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 3,581,482 to Reber, U.S. Pat. No. 3,395,522 to Zweegers, U.S. Pat. No. 3,469,378 to Heesters et al. and French Pat. No. 1,519,808.
Of particular interest is U.S. Pat. No. 3,905,182 to Horst W. Geier. The present invention represents a unique improvement over the rotary mower of the aforementioned patent by the same inventor.
The present novel arrangement differs from the prior art wherein knife blades and knife holders are positioned inside the annular ring gap between a freely rotating or stationary saucer and a rotating collar section or disc. Also, the invention discloses a blower arrangement for generating an updraft to erect the grass in the path of the knife blades.